Amidst the tsunami of social change sweeping Arab shores, French President Nicolas Sarkozy made a landmark visit to Turkey. He has always refused to visit Turkey, and had publicly declared his opposition to ‘Muslim’ Turkey joining ‘Christian’ Europe — as he sees them. He visited it only this once as
Ernesto Che Guevara once said, “revolutions are made by adventurers and manipulated by opportunists”. I recalled this statement while following up Western analyses of Arab revolutions. I found that the thing which strikes Western strategic analysts is this sudden and dramatic change in the Arab mood
I was struck by the huge difference between the response of some readers to my article, “The people want an end to American support for settlement” in the Asharq Al Awsat newspaper and the response of western readers to the same article published in English in Gulf News. While some Arab
The wave of liberation revolutions sweeping the Arab world has shown the world that the Arabs are alive and deserve freedom and prepared to fight and die for it. But the strangest thing about it is that the neo-conservatives are popping up their heads, which have been crowned by the shame of wars an
It seems that Tunisia was destined to be the catalyst for the greatest event in modern Arab history. And it seems that Mohammad Bouzeizi, who set fire to himself in protest against an insult to his personal dignity, triggered a revolt for the restoration of Arab dignity. But when Egypt is at the hea
On October 15-16, 1991, President Hafez al-Assad spent more than 15 hours discussing with James Baker, the then U.S. Secretary of State, the terms and phrases which should be used in the Madrid peace process in order to express the Palestinian people’s legitimate rights, stressing, in particular, th